Container



Feb. 12, 1929. 1,701,636

, W. H. RICHMAN CONTAINER Filed Sept. 50, 1927 auw,

Patented Feb. I2, 1929.

uiTED STATES WALTER H. RICHMAN, or KIRKWoon, NEW JERSEY.

. CONTAINER.

@riginal application led April 26, 1923, Serial No. 634,653. Divided and this application filed September so, 1927. serial No. 223,100.

My invention is particularly applicable to sheet metal cans used in the transportation and .storage of dairy products. Such cans are i ed by wholesalers to 'deliver milk, cream, ice cream, frozen custards, etc., to retailers, and are used by the latter to hold such products while they are being dispensed; the emptied cans being thereafter returned to the wholesalers to be refilled and again distributed.. Consequently, such cans must be extremely durable to withstand the rough v handling and stresses and wear to which they are inevitably subjected. Moreover, as such containers are retained in salt ice water to preserve their contents, ytheir bodies must be permanently liquidk tight and, to pre-vent contamination of their contents, they must be adapted to be substantially hermetically sealed by closures which can be instantly opened and shut, to .facilitate dispensation of their contents. l Furthermore, such containers should not have any internal corners or recesses or joints which cannot be readily cleaned. of every vestige of their contents, by mechanical means, for such products readily and rapidly decompose.

Therefore, the object and effect of my invention is to provide containers having the characteristics above contemplated. However, it is to be understood that I do not desire to limitmy invention to such specific use.

it/.i'y inventionincludesthe various novel ji'eatures of construction, arrangement, and procedure hereinafter specified. K

In said drawings; Fig. I is an elevation, partly in section, showing a container em,-

- bodying my invention and adapted for holding ice cream and similar dairy products.

Figs. II to V inclusive are fragmentary vertical sectional views showing successive stages in the formation of the bottom plate, and its joint with the container body, in the form of my invention shown in Fig. I.

F ig. VI is a fragmentary lvertical sec tional view of the bottom vof a container, showing a modified form of my invention.

Referring to the form of my invention shown in Fig. I; the can body l has the removable lid closure 2, conveniently provided with the rigid handle 3; having its opposite ends t welded to the top of said closure 2. Said can body l is conveniently formed of primarily flat sheet steel, preferably low carbon steel. b v iirst beudingsuch sheet to cylindrical forni and then uniting its longitudinal abutting edges 6 conveniently by an electrical or gas welding operation. However, I prefer to reinforce said can body at its upper edge and provide a bead 7 as a seat for said closure 2, by twice folding the edge of the metal backward upon itself, to the configuration indicated in Fig. I, before the metal is bent to cylindrical form, as above described.

Said can body l is provided with the bottoni closure 8 which is curved to form an acute edge 9, forming a iilleted corner inside the can to facilitate cleaning the latter, and has the cylindrical flange l0 which maybe of the same diameter as said can body l and welded thereto, as indicated at Ill. I find it convenient to form said bottom closureV 8 with a reinforcing chime including a tubular toric bead 13 connected with the upturned edge 9 of said closure by the cylindrical zone 14. Such a bottoni closure may be conveniently formed by the successive steps indicated in Figs. II to V inclusive, wherein the closure plate 8, which is primarily plane, is dished, by a pressing operation, to form the circular zone 14.; then swaged to form the toric'bead 13, conveniently by pressing the inner region of said closure 8 outwardly over a forming ring 16', which may be left in said bead to reinforce the latter. Said cylindrical flange l0 is formed vby upturning the primarily plane viiange 17, and said edge 9, if left blunt by a pressing operation, may be sharpened to an acute angle in Contact with said flange 1Q, by a spinning swaging operation, kwith any suitable means; for instance the roller 18.

n In order to facilitate the operation of welding said flange l0 to the body l att-he junction ll; I prefer to initially outwardly con verge theupper edge ofsaid flange l0, as inf dicated at '19 in Fig. IV, so that the bottom edge of said body l fits therein, as indicated in that gure. With said body l and its bot tom closure 8 thus assembled, as in Fig. IV; the thusoverlapped edges thereof may be welded together ,conveniently between opposed rollers 20 and 2l as indicated in Fig. V; said rollers forming the opposite electrodes of the ywelding circuit and being lll) pressed toward each other kso as to smooth the welded joint while the metal is plastic with the heat of the welding operation.

, Thereafter, the container above described, including the body I and the bottom closure llo 8, and also the top closure 2, may be coated with tin by any convenient method or means, .so that the structure is completely formed without any rivets or solder. @ne of the advantages of such construction is that such structures may be repeatedly retinned without contamination and loss of the tinning bath, which would be polluted by the immersion ol' any soldered container therein, beanse the solder, largely composedot lead, meltsin and mixes with the :molten tin, rendering the latter unfit for subsequent use for tinV plating.

However, in some forms ot' my invention; prefer to leave the bottom edge oi the can body and the upper edge of the bottom closure permanently overlapped, so asto aiiord a duplicate thickness to reinforce the .container against transverse stresses at that joint. For instance, as shown in Fig. VI, the cylindrical can body 22, which may be otherwise conveniently rformed like the can body l above described, is inwardly converged at its lower edge, conveniently by a rotary spinning operation, to a cylindrical, Zone 24 of less diameter, to afford an externally recessed cylindrical seat 25 for the upwardlyextending cylindricalflange 26 of the bottom closure 27, whichmay be formed like the bottom closure 8 above described, but may also have the annular recessedseat 28 to receive the inwardly turned bottom edge 29 on saidbody 22.

Said container body 22 and its bottom closure 27 may be joined by continuously circumferentially welded joints, or by a succession of spot welds which overlap each other, or by a scriesoz spot welds 30 in circumferentially spaced relation. I iind that the latter, whichis the cheapest of the three methods ot welding, sui'iices, in view of the Jfact that the structure is subsequently tinned both inside and outside.

Oi course, it is to be understood that it is unnecessary to provide a container bottom joint oi' the form indicated in Fig. VI with the `tubularV chime 13 indicated.

As aforesaid, I prefer to weld all my con- V tainer joints for Vthe vreason that they may be coated with pure' tin, and repeatedly retinned; whereas, anys'older included in such containers fuses off inthe molten tin bathl and renders the latter uniit :tor coatingqbecause of the -mixture'jtherewith `of the different metallic elements of theV solder. However, it is obvious that containers, otherwise as described, may have soldered or riveted joints.

rlhis application is a division of my application orfLetters Patent oi the United States Serial No. 634,653iiled vApril 26, 1923.

Theretore, l do not desire to limit myself to the precise details olf construction and arrangement or methodof.procedure herein set forth, as it is obvious thatvarious modifications may be made therein, without departing iro-m the essential features of my invention, as delined in the appended claims.

l claim:

l. The process of forming a container bot tom closure plate, which includes pressing a primarily plane circular sheet of metal to oiiset a. circular area` in concentric position therein, bounded by a circular tubular Zone extending transversely to a plane perimetral flange; torming an inwardly curved hollow torio bead at ythe junction rof said Zone and i'iange; andbending` said plane llange to torni a circular tubular tiange, and thus including said bead asy part of a tubular toric chime ring. j

2. lira container, the combination with a cylindrical tubular body, of a bottom clo sure including a circular plate, bounded by a.cylindricaltubular Zone; said plate having an acute angular edge upwardly inclined at the circumference ot said Zone; a tubular torio chime ring at the lower edge ot said zone; a cylindrical iiange exterior to said Zone; said cylindrical iiange being'y ot the same outside diameter as said body and circumferentially 'welded to said body; and a solid ring` in said tubular ring.

3. ln a container, the combination with a 'cylindrical tubular body; ot a bottom closure including a'circular plate, bounded by a cy lindrical tubuiar sone; said plate having an acute angular edge upwardly inclined at the circumference ot said zone; a tubular torio chime ring at the lower edge of said zone; a cylindrical flange exterior to said zone; said cylindrical flange being ot the saine outside diameter as said body and circumterentiaily welded to said body.

4t. The process ont forininga container bottom closure, which includes pressing a primarily plane sheet of metal to oil'sf a circular area thereof, bounded by a circu tubular zone, extending transversely to a perimetral flange; forming a `hollow toric bead at the junction of said zone and'tlange; bending said flange to circular tubular term, around said zone,'thus including said bead as part ot' a tubular toric chime ring; and sw Y the margin ot' said circular area to an acuto edge, 4incontact with said flange.

5. The process of forming a containeil bottom closure, which includes a primarily plane sheet of metal to oliset a circular arca thereof, bounded by a circular tubular Zone, extending transver, ely to a perimetral flange; bending said flange to circular tubular torni, around said zone; and swaging the margin of said circular area to an acute edge, in contact with said flange. l

ln testimony whereof, l have hereunto signed my name at Kirkwood, Camden Co., New Jersey, this 25th day of July, 192?.

VALTER H. RICHliL/eii. 

